Last Assignment

by MyMidnightWish

When Thalia is walking alone one night she encounters a boy with malicious purple eyes.He says to her that he is death. As time passes she and her personal shimigami become closer. What happens when one starts to care for the other?

Geri: So this is a story I wrote for my language arts portfolio c: I hope you guys like it!

The snow was lightly falling from the gray tinted winter sky. It was quiet as can be and all I could do was stare nonchalantly into the distance. There was nothing cheerful about the scenery around me. The dark brown bark trees were leafless and had their branches outstretched toward a sun that would not appear. It wasn't cold enough for a thick winter jacket so I snuck out of my house with a thin aeropostale jacket. However, I was glad to know that I could still see my breath in little smokey-like clouds. My dark brown black hair flew aimlessly in the chilly winter breeze and I started to think this walk would never end. No one was out at this time and since my parents were fighting once again, I took this as an opportunity to think. Suddenly I heard a rustling noise behind me and my hand immediately went to the switch blade that sat in my pocket. The blade was a gift from my father when he first took me out to a hunting range. I've never used it on a human, but I know the key points to stab. My steps became a bit more hasty and I was beginning to think I was clearly showing my fear, but the noise had stopped. The wind howled around me and the sun still wasn't rising. I cautiously looked behind me, ready to lunge at the next given moment, but no one was there. My body relaxed as I took a breath and turned to face forward again.

My home was only two blocks away. A flake of snow landed on my nose and melted instantly; I looked up at the sky. How could this atmosphere send such horrible emotions to me? As my eyes wandered to the direction ahead of me, I was met with the sight of a young man no older than me. His facial expressions held a malicious intent and there was a horrible hungry glint in his purple eyes. He pushed back his blue black bangs out of his face to reveal a gash on his forehead that spanned from his left cheek to the right side of his forehead. I had the impulse to scream, but I wouldn't give this stranger the satisfaction of seeing me scared. My finger tips brushed against the blade once again and I tried to grip the handle.

"Now don't do anything stupid, Thalia."

"Eh?"

"I know you're trying to reach for the switch blade in your pocket…" He said casually placing his warm hand over the hand that I was using to reach for the blade. "..with this hand."

I pulled my hand away from him, "Don't touch me!"

Then something important registered in my head. How did this guy know my name?

He smiled, "What's the matter, sweetheart?"

"Don't call me that."

"Then would you prefer 'Thalia'?" His voice got on my nerves.

"How do you know my name?" That didn't come out as bravely as I wish it did.

"I've known you your whole life." As crazy as that sounded, his voice held honesty.

"What do you mean?" My voice came out carefully.

"I've seen you be born and I will be the one to see you die."

"W-What?"

"Don't be scared now." His smile was so sinister; behind him a scythe appeared.

What was happening here?

"What are you doing with that?"

"You've never heard of a grim reaper before, have you?"

I blinked, "You're joking, right?"

"Do I look like I'm joking?" He asked, gesturing to the scythe.

"No?" The answer came choked out of me.

"Then there's your answer."

I opened up my mouth to scream, but his bone chilling laughter muted my voice.

"Save your breath." He said cooly.

"What is your name?"

He looked at me perplexed by the question.

"You know my name, why can't I know yours?"

"What if I told you I didn't have a name?"

"That's a dumb prospect. You must have a name."

"Well why don't you give me one then."

"What?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "If I must have a name, then I want you to give me one."

"Why me?"

"You're the one who asked about my name."

"Well then I need some time to think of a name."

"Then…" He stopped himself and glared at me. "Do you think you're smarter than me?"

"N-No!"

"Don't think you can cheat death!" He yelled at me. "I will take your life tonight!"

The next thing I knew, I was pushed to the ground and laying on my back. My coat was getting soaked from the slushy snow on the side walk and the young man poised the scythe above my heart and readied it like a baseball bat. I closed my eyes as he swung downward at me. Then he let out a grunt and I opened my eyes. He was gone. I sat up and looked around and I half expected to find him standing behind me. Did all that really happen? There was no footprints in the snow but mine. Did I imagine all of that?

When I arrived at my drive way, the lights in my house were off and I felt forgotten. At that moment I didn't know whether to be mad or hurt. I pushed those thoughts away and snuck into the silent home. As I reached the staircase, I tried to make a show of stomping on every single step my foot hit as I scaled the flight of wooden stairs. No one woke up or even reacted to the noise I was making. Sighing inwardly, I slammed my room door closed and took off my jacket. Absently, I threw my jacket in a random direction and was about to strip off my clothes when I heard a loud grunt.

"You shouldn't throw your belongings in such random directions." A vaguely familiar voice chided.

I turned around hastily to see No Name (well for now I'll call him that) sitting on my bed. He was hugging one of my sky blue pillows to his chest with one hand and held my jacket out toward me with his other hand.

"What are you doing here?" I hissed at him.

It's funny, I'm more worried about my parents seeing this guy in my room than what he could actually do to me in this room.

"I'm simply making sure you got home in one piece. Plus, I had a few jobs around the neighborhood to do." A smirk played on his devious lips. "Not to worry, your parents are fast asleep. They didn't even notice that you weren't home."

Police sirens were sounding in the distance and were approaching toward my neighborhood. A cold chill went down my spine as I saw them pull out a dead body from the house.

I waved my hand dismissively at him, "I'm aware of that."

"Don't be so hurt." He chuckled.

To my annoyance, he laid himself out on my bed and made himself comfortable. His eyes stared attentively at the white ceiling above him. My bed springs whined under his weight and I was debating with myself about what I was going to do.

"Aren't you tired?" I folded my arms over my chest. "Don't you have your own bed to sleep in?"

He looked at me furiously and growled, "I don't need sleep. Which means I don't need a bed!"

"Translation being you're homeless." I let out a laugh.

A smug smile was plastered on his face, "You didn't believe me did you, you ignorant girl!"

"Believe you about what? About you being a grim reaper?" I laughed more. "You're mental!"

"Do you need proof?"

"Sure, let's see some proof, Dr. Death!"

"You asked for it." He smiled darkly and took my hand.

As soon as he took my hand, the world blurred into a new spectrum of colors. A furious wind blew into my face and my eyes were forced closed. My whole body felt awkward and out of place and maybe it broke apart for a split second.

"You can open your eyes again." He said impatiently.

My skin felt hot, but not only that. Everything around me felt hot and unbearably uncomfortable. I could feel all the dread, sadness, pain, hate, and anger that this area bared. The emotions suffocated me and I slowly opened my eyes. All around me was a magma type of atmosphere or maybe the inside of a volcano. The walls that led up to an endless top were dripping down with magma that boiled and sizzled when it hit the ground. People in ragged beggars clothes walked lifelessly around the area carrying unidentified materials with glazed eyes.

"What is this place?"

"A nicer version of Hell." He smiled at me. "Or at least I like to think about this place that way."

"A nicer version?"

"There's no way I could describe how horrible that place is, My Dear." His voice was getting soft. "But, don't worry you won't end up here or there."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll see." He gestured to the awful landscape around us. "I welcome you to my home."

"This is where you live?" I could barely say it.

"Yup! In that estate over there." He pointed at it carelessly.

His finger pointed to a beautiful house at the top of a cliff that over looked a sea of lava. No Name led me to the area and to my surprise, there was an abundance of greenery and life in the area. The house before me glimmered with life and love. It was a simple bruise purple two story house that featured a tricked out country porch. There was even a chair swing hung on the porch so you could rock back and forth while looking out at the terrible landscape that surrounded this paradise. A few healthy oak trees bordered the home and a middle-aged maid came bustling out of the house bearing tea and cookies. She had deep brown hair that was tied up in a messy bun and her eyes were a beautiful ever green shade. Her skin was getting wrinkly from old age and she had red splotches on her apron.

"Welcome back, Master." She bowed while offering the food and drink.

"Thank you, Mildred." He decided to take a cookie.

"The house has already been cleaned of all the blood."

"Good job." He looked around dutifully for something. "Where is Pelli?"

"Sleeping in your room, he came home with wounds."

"From what?" His tone was far more concerned than before.

"Pelli was assigned a job to kill one of your adversaries and one of their own creatures ambushed him before he could reach his goal." Mildred peered at me. "Master, who is this lovely young woman?"

"This is Thalia, Mildred. Treat her as you would Pelli."

"Yes, sir."

"You can roam around the house. I need to tend to Pelli." No Name said before hurrying into the house.

"Well, come on in, Dearie." Mildred said with a genuine smile. "Why don't we get you comfortable?"

I took her hand and allowed her to lead me into the house, "Thank you.."

The house was very cozy and welcoming. The rooms were painted with vibrant reds, oranges, and greens. There wasn't much furniture that I could see. In the living room there was a flat screen T.V. and a cushioned maroon couch. On the walls, that were a fire engine red, were several bizarre paintings and pictures of two little boys. One looked like a nice and normal version of No Name. The room adjacent to the living room was an artist's room. The walls here were splattered with various different colors and there was several recently painted art propped up against the walls. A large window that was taller than me spanned the side of the room and showcased the sea of lava that was just over the cliff. I wandered through a long narrow hall and was led into the largest library I have ever seen. How could this small house hold such a gigantic library? There seemed to be books on every subject imaginable. My fingers skimmed the bindings of the nearest bookcase.

I have always been a book worm and I could easily see myself being lost in all the countless stories this collection held. A single desk sat in the middle of the teal carpeted room and on the desk was a thick album. I sat in the wooden stool and carefully opened up the book. The title page read, To Those Whose Lives I've Taken. What kind of title was that? I turned the page the very first picture was of No Face holding his scythe and looking down sadly at the body of a young woman who was no older than eighteen. The photo was black and white, and as I studied the photo carefully, I realized that her clothing was no where near this time period. In the background stood a newsstand and one of the newspapers had a date imprinted on it. 1442. Did they even have photography back then? The next page showed a little boy peacefully asleep….with No Name's scythe sticking out of him. Even though the photo was horribly out of quality, I could vaguely see a small trickle of blood escaping his body. As I flipped through the other pages, the images just grew worse and worse. Who was taking these pictures?

Finally, there was a blank page and the page next to it had a piece of lined paper taped onto it. In loopy writing was written: My Last Assignment. I hesitated in turning to the next page, but after one long minute of debating with myself, I carefully turned the page. On the very next page was a beautifully clear picture of a newborn infant. It was a girl from what I could tell on the tag on her crib in the baby room of a hospital. Her eyes were closed like the babies next to her and she looked like she was asleep. I looked a little more closely at the tag on the crib and saw her name. Thalia Delgado. I blinked a few times and looked at the tag various times over. That was my name. A chill went down my spine and I looked at the next photo. The baby, I mean me, was at maybe three months old. My hair was very thick and I was dressed in one of those footy pajamas. The room was dark, but whatever camera was taking this picture had remarkable night light quality. I was asleep in my white wooden crib and had a fluffy brown teddy bear set beside me.

I continued to turn the pages and watched at the photos retold my life so far. The photos captured some of my most treasured moments to the moments my heart longed to forget. My heart seemed to skip a beat as one shot was fairly recent, maybe two weeks ago. I recognized the shirt and the scenery, this was when I was looking up at the stars from my balcony window. That night was the night my mother threatened to divorce my father. It was a terrible night.

"So you've found it?" No Name closed the library doors.

For some reason, No Name looked more malicious than normal. His purple eyes bored into mine with some hidden message waiting for me to uncover. No Name's face held no expression at that moment as he stared at the page I was on.

"Why do you have these photos?"

"Isn't it obvious?" He walked around the side of the table and closed the album shut. "I want to remember their faces."

"Whose faces?"

He gave me a perplexed expression, "These people…well didn't you read the cover?"

I nodded numbly. I hoped he would tell me something different from what my mind knew was true.

"Then you know I killed these people." His voice was empty and cold.

"You…You.." I couldn't bring myself to say this fact.

"I killed them, Thalia. Say it," He commanded harshly. "Say it!"

He grabbed my shoulders forcibly and shook me until I sputtered out what he desperately wanted me to say.

In a low whisper I complied, "You killed these people."

His facial features contracted into something cold and bottomlessly sad. It was as if he wanted me to say that he didn't kill them. His eyes seemed to ask me to tell him he was wrong.

"You're really going to kill me, aren't you?"

"Yes."

We locked eyes for a long time and it seemed as if an understanding was reached.

"I can give you time."

"What?"

"They never told me I can't give a mortal time." He wouldn't meet my gaze anymore. "You're the first mortal that I have actually studied."

"Studied?"

"Yeah. I always just appear when a person is born and the day they are due to die. It's always been the way of things, but my time is coming."

"Your kind dies?"

"Oh, Thalia, you were never one to believe in immortality." He chuckled. "Why would you doubt your beliefs now?"

"Because I met you." I retorted back to him.

"Well, if you must know, yes. My kind does die. It's a very unpredictable topic because it's like humans. We have a certain life expectancy, but there have been uncountable occurrences where we have superseded the guess." His matter of speaking was monotone and a hint of anger escaped him.

"Jaiden!" A young voice called.

A smaller version of No Name came busting into the room. He promptly attached himself to No Name and smiled up at him gleefully.

"Jaiden, you healed me yet again!" He laughed. "Thank you."

"Jaiden?" I asked.

"That was my before name."

"Before name?"

"Before I became what I am."

"Became?"

"You ask too many questions."

"So will you answer them?"

"Jaiden, who is she?"

"A new assignment."

"You never bring your assignments home!" He looked at me in awe as if he never saw someone like me before.

"Well, she's my very last assignment."

Peli looked at him sadly, "I get it."

"Good, go give her a hug. She's leaving now." He detached himself from the little boy and walked out of the room. "I'll wait outside, Thalia."

I studied the little boy the way he studied me. He looked about nine years old and had chocolate brown hair and paper white skin. His eyes were a vibrant glacier blue and his lips were dressed in fresh cuts. A small scar spanned his left cheek to the corner of his jaw and his smile held such innocence that I thought Jaiden had stolen him away from an abusive home.

"I'm Pelli!" He engulfed me in a tight hug and continued to hold on.

A tail swished behind him, it was most like a wolf tail. The fur of the tail was well groomed and a beautiful gray color. A pair of matching gray wolf ears unearthed themselves from his bushy Bieber hair cut. Unbelievable as it was, I'm not surprised to see his peculiarity.

"I'm Thalia." I say softly and stroke his head.

His hair was surprisingly soft and I wanted to pet him more, but I knew Jaiden was waiting outside for me. I said my farewell to Pelli and made my way back to the front door of the house. The heat outside was actually refreshing as I felt it rush out to meet me when I left the cool temperature of the home. Jaiden was standing at the edge of the cliff and I thought he was about to jump, but instead he just turned to look back at me.

"Are you done?"

"Yeah."

"I'll bring you home."

"O-"

"I wanna come too!" Pelli called out, running from the house.

How could such a cute lovable child be built to kill something? Jaiden looked conflicted by the request. Maybe he saw Pelli as a little brother, but at least I was sure he genuinely cared for the boy.

"Pleeeeeaaase?" He pleaded with a puppy dog look on his face, his tag wagged in anticipation of his reply.

Jaiden groaned, "Fine."

"You must really love Pelli." I giggled as Pelli reached out to hold my hand and Jaiden's hand.

"Unfortunately so." He shook his head in disapproval.

"He's my father." Pelli said happily.

"What?"

"Not like that." Jaiden glared at me. "I…how do I explain this?"

"Jaiden created me." Pelli explained with a huge smile on his face as if that was the best thing in the world.

"He was sort of like a lab experiment." Jaiden gave me a side ways glance. "You know how Frankenstein was created? Yeah, that's how Pelli was created."

"But he looks like he was born that way."

"In a sense, you could say that truthfully."

In an instant we were back in my room and the sun was peaking out from the horizon. How much time has passed? I looked at the clock and saw that it was almost 6:30 in the morning. My mind buzzed with questions, but I wrestled through my closet to find my red backpack and assemble all the homework that was due later today. Pelli lounged on my bed the way Jaiden had when he first came to my room while Jaiden idly checked my homework. To my surprise, he fixed a few problems that had a few silly mistakes in them.

"You should check your homework more often." Jaiden said breaking the silence.

"Yeah."

"So..?"

"So.."

"What happened to that favorite jacket of yours?"

"What jacket?"

"That ruby colored jacket with the fur trimmed hood. You wore it all the time even if it was 90 degrees outside."

"I lost it last year on a camping trip." I half chuckled. "For a spring day, it somehow shot up to the 90's and I was dying in that jacket. I took it off for a dip in the lake and I guess I forgot to get it after we left the lake."

"That's a shame. You looked really happy in that jacket." He smiled warmly at me, but his eyes seemed to be in the past.

"That's an odd thing to say." I quietly giggled.

"I suppose it is." His smile faded a bit.

"You should smile more like that."

"Shut up." He groaned and placed his palm on my forehead and forced my head downward.

"Hey!" I yelped.

"Where was that lake?"

"A few miles from here in that forest preserve by the library."

"Devil's Kitchen Lake?" He asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Yes, what of it?" I snorted.

"Don't you know you could drown there?"

"Well, good thing I know how to swim."

"Didn't your mother know you could be fined for swimming there?"

"No one was around." I assured him.

"You're very insensible." He shook his head.

"So?"

"You should be more careful." Jaiden warned. "You only get to live this life once."

Pelli was asleep on my bed and I tucked him in. My parents were already at work and I was relieved to know that no one would be checking up on me for awhile. Time was ticking away and it was almost time for me to leave for my bus stop.

"Get to school." Jaiden ordered. "We'll be here when you get home."

"Ok." Somehow, those words comforted me.

How strange is that? I knew full well that these two were killers or murders, yet I didn't fear them as much I should have. Was Jaiden a killer? What was Pelli exactly? I had to ask them when I get home. The school day went by in a haze and once the tenth period bell rang, the teacher had to snap me out of my haze for me to leave the property. I sit alone on the bus so it was easy for me to be lost in my thoughts again, but I made sure to stay aware enough to know when it was time to get off the bus. As I walked home, a chilly wind blew down the street and scattered the dusty snow slush even more than before. I hesitated to open my room door when I got home. It was ridiculous to think that I actually wanted the two of them to be there in my room. It was unbelievable to think that I wanted to find Pelli still asleep on my bed and Jaiden watching over him silently. Was I that lonely? I opened the door slowly and peeked in. There they were, just as I imagined them there to be.

"Welcome home." Jaiden didn't look at me because his full attention was on Pelli.

"You really love Pelli, don't you?"

He cracked a smile, "More than I'll ever let him know."

"Why?"

"It's better if he doesn't get too attached since I'll be gone soon."

I understood his motives, maybe he wasn't so bad after all.

"When will you umm…be gone?"

"A short time after I kill you." He said it bluntly.

"What if you don't kill me?"

"Then I'll be murdered at the hands of my Master."

"Master?'

"He's a cruel thing." Pelli said suddenly.

"Go back to sleep." Jaiden said coldly.

"No." Pelli said simply and turned back to me. "If she wants to know about Master she should hear it from me."

"Pelli.."

"It's ok."

"No, it's not." He glared at me. "What must you know about him?"

"Why would he murder you?"

"Because he thinks it is fun." Pelli replied.

"Fun?"

"He's a true demon. Nothing like Jaiden," Pelli smiled. "Jaiden was always the best dad."

"Best?"

"I guess you should know." Jaiden threw a weary glance at Pelli. "Would you like to tell her?"

"Master is my real father." Pelli looked away from me. "But he killed me."

"I revived him or more like I revived his soul." Jaiden cut in, giving Pelli an affectionate pat on the head. "I gave him a new life."

"Yup!" Pelli beamed like the proudest boy in the world. "Master didn't say anything about the revival."

"He didn't care." Jaiden's tone was very bitter and angry. "We should go."

Pelli ran up to me and kissed my cheek, "Good night, Thalia!:"

"Good night, Pelli." I replied with a huge smile.

Jaiden waited patiently by the window.

"Good night, Jaiden." He didn't reply.

In an instant, the two boys were gone. A loud knock came at my door and I knew exactly who it was. You see my mom and dad have certain patterns that they have always followed over the years. My dad loves even numbers and he had a habit of knocking twice while my mom was the opposite and loved having an odd one out. This was a one knock type of sound so it had to be my mom.

"Come in." I sad quickly grabbing my science notebook.

"I thought I heard voices…Was someone here?"

"No, Mom." I gestured a hand around my small room. "No one is here."

"Just making sure." She sighed. "You're father….he won't be home tonight."

"Where is he?"

"It doesn't matter, but what would you like for dinner?" She asked mustering a small smile on her face. "We can go wherever you want. My treat!"

I couldn't deny that pleading look on her face so with a sigh, "Yeah, sure! How about that little italian restaurant you love so much."

"You always said you hated italian." She replied with a raised eye brow.

"Pfft," I waved a hand dismissively at her. "What are you talking about?"

She smiled appreciatively, "We'll leave in an hour. Finish your homework, ok?"

"Yes, mom."

She kissed my forehead and left the room. I sighed deeply and tried not to think about what could have happened between my parents or where my father could possibly be at this moment. I had a bad feeling he met another women or maybe out drinking again with his "buddies". There was a light tapping on my window and I looked up abruptly. It was Jaiden and I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding. I unlocked the window and let him in.

"I thought you went home..?"

"Yeah, well something seemed wrong so I came back." He wouldn't meet my gaze.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"You know what?"

"What?" He said sarcastically.

"You don't seem so evil anymore."

"Don't be so sure so soon."

"Hmph, you can't fool me.." I winked. "..Jaiden."

His face grew a slight pink color and he grumbled begrudgingly, "Don't call me that."

"Why not? It's your name."

"No, it's not."

"Then what would you prefer me to call you?"

"I told you, give me a name if want to call me by one."

"Why won't you let me call you Jaiden?"

"Because I don't deserve that name!" He nearly yelled at me.

I was stunned by the sheer fury in his voice when he said that.

"What do you mean?"

"I am not Jaiden."

"Of course you're Jaiden." I gave him a silly look and he glared back at me.

"It's not funny. I'm not Jaiden." He vanished from thin air.

I went to sleep that night with a horrible feeling in my gut. Pelli appeared at my bedside the next morning and I could tell by his eyes that something terrible had happened. I took him into my arms and cradled him as I would a younger sibling. He sat in my arms in contented silence before he found his voice. Pelli seemed unsure of how to present whatever information he was about to tell me. His wolfish dial wagged back and forth limply; a typical sign of canine depression.

His voice cracked and his wolf ears folded downward as he uttered the words, "Master has come to collect..."

"Collect what?"

His eyes dilated and he seemed to be muted.

"Collect what, Pelli?"

"You." Pelli burst into tears. "B- But Jaiden said that he didn't kill you. Then…then…Master that he wanted Jaiden to kill you now. And..and.."

"What happened after that?" My voice was growing desperate.

His sobs softened, "Jaiden refused to! He said he didn't want to murder you. M-Master laughed at him and asked him if he cared for you. Jaiden didn't reply and Master…Master smacked him!"

Pelli's cries grew once more and he sounded like a wounded animal. But in a sense he was, but in reality he was a traumatized child that was not allowed to be a child. To me, it seemed like Pelli was forced to face grownup life the minute his father disowned him. As for Jaiden, I could tell something terrible had happened to him and it was because of me. Why did Jaiden care for me? Why didn't he kill me?

"Where is Jaiden?"

Pelli's tail stopped wagging and his eyes seemed to be glazed over. There was a bottomless expression on his face.

"Pelli, please tell me." I whispered.

"Thalia? Honey? We're going to leave in a few minutes." My mother said cheerfully.

"Yes, Mom!" I called back to her.

"You have to go." Pelli said blankly and got out of my arms.

"Pelli, wait!" I said and grabbed his wrist; not too hard of course.

"I have to go." He said and disappeared as fast as Jaiden had.

I stood there in silence and stared at the spot where Pelli had once been mournfully. My mom opened the door and asked me what was wrong. How could I possibly explain to her that I felt like two very important people had just walked out of my life. How could I tell her that these people meant to kill me when I first met them, but now they actually tried to protect me? Pelli never said that he would never come back and neither did Jaiden, but it still felt as if they were saying good bye.

"I found your favorite jacket. You know the one you thought you lost last spring on that camping trip?"

"Really?" I asked and looked at the old, worn out jacket. "I could have sworn that I left that parka by the lake."

"It was warm that day, I should have listened to.." I knew she was about to say 'your father'.

"It's great you found it!" I replied quickly with a small smile.

"It's odd really. It was sitting on the top shelf of my closet and it was folded so neatly, but.."

"But..?" The expression on her face did not look happy.

"It had fresh dirt stained onto it. I think the jacket still smells a bit earthy."

"How could that be?" I asked looking at the moist dirt on my ruby colored jacket.

"That ruby colored jacket with the fur trimmed hood. You wore it all the time even if it was 90 degrees outside."

"I lost it last year on a camping trip." I half chuckled. "For a spring day, it somehow shot up to the 90's and I was dying in that jacket. I took it off for a dip in the lake and I guess I forgot to get it after we left the lake."

No….he couldn't have. Jaiden didn't go out to the lake to find my jacket, right? I was torn up inside. Half of me was laughing at me for even trying to deny the fact that Jaiden had gotten the jacket. Then the other half reasoned that maybe it was always there. But how could the dirt still be so moist? The jacket had to be put there recently!

"Come on, if we don't go now we'll hit the five o'clock traffic." Her voice sounded cheery.

"Alright, what are we waiting for?" I grinned as best as possible.

"Are you ok?"

"You worry too much." I said and hooked arms with her.

Thirty minutes later, we were seated inside my mother's favorite restaurant. The room was lit up with tiny light bulbs that dangled from thin black cords. It gave off the impression that there was stars since the ceiling was a deep black, but to me it seemed to be an abyss. The walls were sponge painted gold and orange, orange was a color that enticed excitement, enthusiasm, and is an overall energetic color. The people dining here seemed to glow with those emotions and traits. The table we sat at was just like all the others. The table and chairs were wooden probably designed by some brand name high end company and clothed over with a white dining drape. The table was accented with two plates, a set of silverware for eat plate, a neatly folded triangle napkin, two empty champagne glasses, and a beautiful center piece. The center piece was a candle floating in water in a clear beer glass tinted dish. There was tiny gray stones at the bottom of the circular dish and the whole feeling that emanated from the candle was a type of elegance and sophistication.

"They really dressed this place up, didn't they?" My mom asked.

She looked a lot like me if you really looked at her. I inherited my eyes and long brown black hair from her. Mother had the body of your ideal fashion model and carried herself as a flowing spirit. Her aura was usually very happy, but tonight it was dreary. I didn't want to ask why. She had tied her hair up in a long side braid and wore a simple mint colored sweater that reached her mid thigh and underneath that wore a set of long black leggings. Tonight, she had put on her favorite pair of chocolate brown ankle boots that sported 4 inch heels. My mother was a very fashionable woman and always turned heads in the room. Though the waiter was subtlety flirting with her and saying some very uncalled for things, she addressed him kindly and ordered our meals in a very polite manner. In short, she was my role model.

"I like this look better than all those little fat statues of the old chef sitting at every corner of the restaurant!" I laughed.

We chatted about life and topics that women would usually talk about. She asked me about my school life and if I had a boy in my life yet. My laughter seemed to start up at the end of each question she asked. My mother thought too highly of me and thought I carried out life the way she did when she was my age.

"Mom, no one really likes me."

"That's impossible!" She gasped. "Why wouldn't they like my baby girl?"

"Well…" I didn't know what to say.

I wasn't mean or had a foul mouth during school. At school, I stood off to the side and tried to stay out of everyone's way. To me, I only cared about getting through the day without causing problems. Some of my classmates teased me in calling me the teacher's pet because I always did as I was told and had all the projects done long before the due date. I can't say no one hadn't tried to reach out to me as a friend, but I can't say that those people lasted long either.

"Are you sure there isn't a boy?" She asked softly with an eye brow raised.

I played with the fresh baked ziti with my fork, "I'm sure."

"Then, why do I feel like one has caught your interest?"

"Mom, the guys at school are mostly jerks." I smirked.

"Then, outside of school?"

"MOM…" I groaned. "Can we drop the subject?"

"So he is outside of school." She had a coy expression on her face.

"If I say yes, can we change the subject?"

"Only if you mean that 'yes'." She reasoned.

"Fine, sure. I like a guy who is not from school." I said plainly.

"What's he like?"

"Mom.." I narrowed my eyes at her. "You told me you would drop the subject."

"Fine, fine." She laughed, but this laugh was different from before. This laugh sounded heartfelt and a little bit relieved. It sounded as if she felt a bit more free.

An hour later, we returned home and I brushed my mother's hair after she dried it from a shower. I use to do this a lot when I was younger, but for some reason stopped. Her hair was very soft and it was fun to create new hairstyles for her when she would let me use her expensive hair accessories.

"Thank you, Thalia." Mother said gently, looking at me from the mirror.

"For what?"

"For tonight. We need to do this more often." She closed her eyes. "I've missed our mother daughter time."

"I missed it too."

After ten more minutes she told me to go to sleep and I laid in bed in pure silence. As soon as thoughts of my mother and father left, my brain was consumed with theories and images of Pelli and Jaiden. What had happened today? What had their master done to them? I had a bad premonition that something terrible had happened. There was a loud knock on my window and my heart beat started to quicken to a ridiculous rate. I shuffled over to the window and peered out of it.

"Open the window!" Pelli yelled.

I complied and helped him inside, "What happened?"

"We need to go!" He said urgently.

"Go where?"

"To Master's home!" Pelli looked like a terrified rabbit. "We need to save Jaiden!"

"What happened to Jaiden?"

We transported to some new place in a matter of seconds. The area was dark and desolate, a chilly wind blew past Pelli and I. He held my hand fiercely and pointed to a house that must've came out from a horror movie. It was dilapidated and the wood on the house was rotting. The white paint was chipping away and the two story building looked like it would cave in at any moment. Everything about the house seemed slanted and wrong. Pelli led me to the front door, it was red and had many little windows that you could look through. However, I had no desire of looking through those windows. He rang the doorbell and waited in silence. The door opened by itself and we walked cautiously inside. Then suddenly, a light was cast on a wooden music box. The music box opened and a little ballerina spun around to the creepy but soothing melody of Hell's Whisper from the game Disgaea. My body went rigid as the light faded and was soon cast upon a rocking chair. It rocked silently and a body started to appear. The dress shoes appeared first, rocking back and forth. With each moment, a new body part appeared until Pelli and I were faced with a man.

This man had to be maybe 35 years old and had a white wispy beard despite how young he looked. He wore round glasses like Harry Potter and looked very dignified in the black dress suit he wore. The smile on his face was as threatening and malicious as the one Jaiden had used on me the day I met him.

"Welcome, welcome…what was your name?" He pondered for a moment. "Why yes, Thalia!"

"H-Hello." I greeted shakily.

"I see my son has brought you here."

I looked abruptly at Pelli, "You mean this is your.."

"I was formerly his father, but now his master." He smiled cruelly at Pelli. "But in my eyes he will always be nothing but a pawn in this little game I play."

Pelli stayed dead silent.

"Where is Jaiden?"

"Playing upstairs."

"Playing?"

"With my toys, of course." Master smiled maliciously at Pelli. "You remember all the fun games we played, right?"

Pelli looked away and ran upstairs. A cry of complete rage sounded in minutes.

"What did you do to Jaiden?"

"Why don't you have a look for yourself." He urged me and disappeared.

"I.."

He reappeared behind me, secured an arm around my stomach, and the other held my right arm away from him, "Then when I'm done playing with Jaiden, why don't we play a game?"

He disappeared into thin air and I ran upstairs as fast as my legs would take me. I wanted to scream at the sight before me, but there was no point. Pelli was already sobbing helplessly as he probed Jaiden's blood ridden body. His abused body was propped up against the wall and his head was looking downward to the ground, but never moved. His clothes were ripped in countless places and he didn't make one single sound. I kneeled before him and adjusted my body to see his face. There was a severe gash on his cheek and Jaiden was dripping blood on the ground.

"Jaiden?"

"Don't look at me." He said clearly.

"Look at me then."

"No."

"Why did you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Protect me."

"Because I've watched you your whole life." He feebly tried to reach up to me, but winced in pain.

"Don't!" I yelped.

"I don't want to be the one who sees that beautiful life end." He opened his eyes and returned my gaze.

"You're so reckless." I smiled softly.

"I'm going to die anyway." He smiled back.

"Don't say that." I grumbled.

"Thalia, I've enjoyed having you as my last assignment."

"Stop.."

"Watching you grow up has taught me that I've been wrong about life." He closed his eyes again. "You shouldn't waste it like I did."

"What a touching reunion." Master said suddenly. "You're going to make me cry."

"You're not capable of crying." Pelli said coldly and his body started to shift.

In seconds he was a ten foot werewolf-like creature. He growled menacingly at Master and stood protectively in front of Jaiden and me.

"I won't be hesitant to kill you again." The certainty in his voice was unreasonable.

"I DON'T CARE!" Pelli's voice came out in a scratchy feral voice and lunged at Master with a veraciousness that I never knew Pelli had.

Master threw Pelli across the room with inhuman ease. Pelli got up easily and lunged at him again and again. He was lashing out at Master with all the pain and fury he had built up over the years. It was terrifying to watch these two demons duke it out. Was Pelli really a demon? He did not act like one unless you counted this one moment. but then again I met Pelli only recently.

"Stop him." Jaiden ordered weakly. "Do it now before he does something stupid!"

"Y-yes!" I made my way into the fight and somehow managed to get between Pelli and Master. "S-Stop! This is useless, Pelli!"

"No, it isn't!" Pelli raged.

"For a kid, you fight pretty ferociously." He licked a cut on his bottom lip. "Maybe I should have kept you. You could have become a wonderful knight."

"I am not some-"

"Pelli, Jaiden asked you to stop!" I tried to deter him.

"If it's for Jaiden.." He glared at me and paced the room.

"Oh, yes! Jaiden, I nearly forgot about you!" Master smiled at his victim. "My, you seem useless now. I suppose I should put you out of your misery."

Before Pelli or I could do anything, a golden spear pierced Jaiden's body and all we heard was Jaiden's pained screams as it happened. In seconds his body went limp and I rushed toward him.

Tears were welling up in my eyes, "JAIDEN! Jaiden, please answer me!"

He coughed up blood, "I'm a sorry sight, aren't I?"

"Shh..shh." I said as silent tears fell from my eyes. "You're going to be ok."

Pelli was back to human form and was rooted to the floor. Jaiden's body started to crack and light seeped through every crack that appeared. The blood began to disappear and the cracks grew bigger. He smiled at me and said something I could no longer hear. It was a terrible sight because cracks started to appear everywhere and in every single place that was part of Jaiden. His eyes had small thin cracks that shone out small rays of light. His body trembled and shook as the cracks continued to grow and consume him. In moments, he was nothing than a blob of light molded into the shape of his body. It felt odd and wrong to be holding this light, but it was as tangible as as a wooden desk. The light started to float upwards and my mind started to panic as I tried to grab the light. My hands went right through it and I burst into more sobs. The light started to break apart into small little orbs that sprang upwards and straight through the roof. There was nothing left of Jaiden aside from the blood that stained my clothes. Nothing. How could he just disappear? That's not how it's supposed to be. No. No..

"Why?" Pelli's voice quivered.

"Pelli.." I looked at him sympathetically.

How could such a child deal with all this pain?

"Why?" Pelli turned to Master and cried out in pain. "WHY DID YOU MURDER JAIDEN?"

Master simply smiled and said, "He was useless. Jaiden had grown rowdy and rebellious. If anything he would have become a damned angel."

"What?"

"My dear girl, these two really told you nothing, have they?"

I stared at him, speechless.

"We're not devils or demons. What Jaiden and Pelli are, are collectors. Agents of our greater master you could say." He pulled a book out from under a clothed chair. "Here we go, this right here is a picture of the whole collector society back when Will was still my child."

"Don't refer to me as 'Will'." Pelli grumbled.

"That will always be your true name whether you like it or not." Master snickered and handed the picture to me.

I took it gently and stared at the picture before me. There was maybe seventy-five adults, seventeen teenagers, and possibly thirty-four children. Every single person in the picture was well dressed and looked very refined. Most of them actually looked happy. Then one face caught my eye-Jaiden's. He was still a small child in this picture, maybe seven years old. He was holding his scythe proudly and was holding the Master's hand. Pelli or should I say Will, was being held in Master's arms. Pelli's arms were wrapped around his neck lovingly.

"Those were happier times."

"Yes, they seemed to be."

"You see, we were in what some call limbo. We are in-between life and death or existence and nonexistence." He closed his eyes. "But because of that we can become either of the two."

"How?"

"No one is entirely sure." Pelli milled around the room looking empty and lost. "It may be social interactions with the living or the dead or maybe a mix of both."

"Where is the rest of the society?"

Master grimaced and fingered through the book some more and handed me a more modern photograph, "This is our current numbers."

The picture did not look nearly as happy. There was thirty adults, ten teenagers, and three children. They were not as nicely dressed and all of them looked worn out.

"What happened?"

"A great number of our society was changed." He shook his head. "It's a shame really. As soon as this happened the elders, the oldest of the trade, decided that it was time we preserved ourselves…and weed out the changers."

"Weed out?"

"Kill them." Pelli frowned.

"Exactly." He smiled at me. "So now that you know, why don't we play a game?"

"A g-game?" I started to back away from him.

"Yes it's a very fun game. You'll love it!"

"I think I'll pass."

Pelli was glowering at him and motioned for me to stay quiet. I continued to back away until I fell backward down the stairs. My body ached and I felt the warm blood on my leg. I winced in pain as I tried to move, I couldn't get up! Master calmly walked down the stairs and had a spiked club in his hand. Where had that come from? As he reached me, he poised the weapon over me and prepared to strike. I closed my eyes and waited for the pain to come, but I never felt the cold spikes enter my body.

"Ah.." I opened my eyes and saw that the master had something penetrating his body.

"I hate you." Pelli said in his feral voice. "You devil!"

"W-Will.." Master's body trembled and fell to the side. "I never k-knew you h-had it i-i-in y-you."

"I always thought you would live forever." Pelli cradled me in his arms and since he was in werewolf form, I was considerably small and light to him. "I guess not."

The same process began to happen except the man had flames erupting from his cracks. In five minutes he was nothing more than embers that were burning into the wood of the house. Pelli brought me deeper into the house and put me down when we reached a steel door.

"Can you walk?" He asked inspecting my bleeding hip.

"Yes, but I need a little help." So he offered his hand to me and we hobbled toward the door. "What's in there?"

"Our souls. The souls that Jaiden has collected over the years and also his own soul." Pelli said calmly. "My soul is in there too."

"Your souls?" I blinked. "Like trapped inside little jars?"

"Something like that, yes." Pelli paced in front of the door. "Supposively these souls belong to me now since I am the only collector in the house and the territory."

"What are you going to do with them?"

"Set them free."

"Where will they go?"

"My father never taught me how to send souls to heaven or hell. He just taught me how to keep them."

"I don't think he ever had the intention of letting these souls go."

"I'm starting to think that too."

He opened the door and inside the light bathed room was millions of shelves with tiny clear bottles. I looked closely at the bottles and saw that there was nothing inside. I picked one up and my eyes started to cloud over. Images of a little girl playing ball assaulted my mind. Minutes passed as I glimpsed at her life and watched her die at the hands of the Master.

"Fascinating, isn't it?" Pelli asked. "I used to spend hours in this room learning about these people's lives."

"Where is your bottle? Jaiden's?" Pelli pointed to the back of the room where a cupboard was located. "May I look at your lives?"

"It's the past. So I don't care." He dismissed me and wandered around bottles. "And Jaiden isn't here to tell you no."

I slowly made my way to the cupboard while I held onto the shelves. With shaky arms, I opened up the cupboard and saw three bottles. They were red, blue, and green. They weren't empty like the other ones, but they were fascinating all the same. Which one was which? The blue bottle caught my eye and I decided that it would be the bottle I would start with.

"What happens if I open the bottle?"

"I don't know."

"Why haven't you ever tried?"

"Master would tell me he would cut my head off if I did."

"I see." My hand scammed the bottle's cap. "Who's bottle is this?"

"Mine."

"I like your bottle."

"Master made it especially for me."

"He seemed to care some."

"I guess you could call that caring."

"So you're really ok with me seeing your life?" I asked, my fingers ghosting over the blue glass.

"Knock yourself out."

I enclosed my hand around the bottle and waited for the images to engulf my mind. I waited for twenty long minutes. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I shook the bottle and both hands around the bottle. The same results occurred. What was I doing wrong?

"Pelli?"

No reply.

"Pelli, this isn't funny."

Silence.

"Pelli?"

I looked around me and realized that I was no longer in the bottle room. What was going on here? I took a deep breath and took a few steps forward. Little puffs of dust erupted into the air and I coughed as I accidentally inhaled the fumes. The room was dark and empty, but there was a crack of light on the other end of the room. Blindly, I walked through the darkness and held my arms out in front of me, trying to be aware of what was around me. I saw the light fade a little bit and heard foot steps.

"Where's Will?" A feminine voice asked in an angry tone.

"We're playing hide and go seek," A little girl's voice replied back.

"Stop playing such childish games.." How harsh was she? "..and get the table ready!"

"Yes, Mother." The little girl replied meekly.

"Who are you?" Pelli's voice chimed from the darkness.

"Pelli?"

A small match was lit and it was bright enough to illuminate the boy's face. This boy was the younger version of Pelli, but he wore overalls and a pair of worn out socks. He didn't look nice or friendly, but cold and reserved.

"Who is Pelli?" He eyed me as best he could in the darkness. "Who are you?"

What part of Pelli's life was this? This boy was so young yet acted older than beyond his years. A lot like the Pelli of the present. In an instant I felt as if I was being sucked upward, sort of like a dust speck being pulled into the vacuum.

"Where'd you go?" Pelli..I mean Will, asked turning on a light.

My head hurt like it had been struck directly by a baseball bat.

"It felt weird didn't it?" Pelli's voice cleared the fog in my head. "Being present in the past."

"Mind boggling." I agreed.

"What part did you see?" He eyed the bottle. "These things have a mind of their own. You can't control what you see or what time you're sent to. You're just whisked away."

"Does it always last that short?"

"I'm not sure. The bottle can spit you out at any moment." Pelli mused.

"That's…problematic."

"Yes, it can be. You could be stuck there forever if the bottle forgets you're there."

"Does it really have it's own mind?"

"It's a better explanation than just saying it's luck."

"I guess you're right."

"I wonder where Jaiden's bottle will take you." His eyes were pinned to the red bottle. "It has always taken me to the same scene."

"Pelli, if I broke your bottle what would you do?"

"I don't know."

"Can we try it?"

"Try breaking my bottle?"

"No, we'll try on one of the other bottles first to see what happens." I grabbed the nearest normal bottle and poised my hand into a throwing position. "You ready?"

"I suppose. Here wait." He morphed into his wolf form and I stared at him stunned. "Just in case a demon comes flying out, ya know?"

"Oh….right. That would be smart..haha." I threw the bottle at the ground and watched the bottle shatter into tiny glittering shards.

The shards vibrated and shoot as mist rose from each piece to formate a girl. She was young, maybe eight years old, and wore a sleeveless sailor girl dress. The little girl had soft brown strawberry curled hair and smiled at the two of us happily.

"Thank you!" She beamed and turned into light just like Jaiden did ad the light shot up into the air.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Pelli asked gruffly.

"Yup!" I motioned to the nearest shelves. "I'll push over these."

"Don't go too far! I'll push these." He knocked over the shelves to the left of us.

"Alright!"

In moments, hundreds of souls were being released and sent to who knows where. It was a wonderful moment for the two of us. I felt as if I was doing something that mattered for the first time in a long time. I felt like I actually had a purpose in life. Maybe I had reached the highest point in my life at this moment. We finished up the last of the shelves when we realized that there was still the cupboard. There was still those last three bottles.

"Are you sure we broke all of the bottles on the shelves?" He asked checking the floors.

"Pelli?"

"Are you checking?"

"Pelli!"

"What?" He finally gave me his attention.

"What will happen when I break your bottle?"

Pelli went silent.

"Pelli, how will I get out of here if you disappear?"

He smiled at me, "You'll set Jaiden and I free at your place."

"What?"

"You can keep the bottle shards as a memento of us!"

"You want to disappear?" I asked, holding back tears.

"Of course not!" he snorted. "But I don't belong here anymore."

"You're a real kid." I smiled and petted his fur clad belly. "But you sound much wiser than me."

"That's what hundreds of years of living does to you." He shook his head in annoyance. "Come on, get the bottles."

"Ok.." I grabbed the red and blue bottles with my sleeves covering my hands. "What do we do with the green one?"

"Leave it." Pelli said in an empty voice. "That person deserves to stay trapped."

"Y-yes." I didn't think it would be the right time to argue. "Let's go."

"Yes, let's go." Pelli gently clasped my hand and we teleported out of the creepy old house.

The two of us were back in my room and we sat on the floor in silence. I set the bottles in between us and waited for him to give me some sort of direction. He morphed back into his somewhat human form and pushed Jaiden's life bottle towards me.

"I think you should glimpse into his life first before we do anything else."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I think he would want you to see his life." He smiled warmly at me. "You know, the way he looked at yours."

I felt tears well up into my eyes, "Where do you think he went?"

"Heaven, it has to be heaven." Pelli's smile grew a mile wide. "He was always a good person."

"Pelli, where do you think you'll go?"

"I don't know..I killed my father. That doesn't sound like 'heaven material'." His eyes wandered the room.

I petted his head, "But you saved my life."

"So? Jaiden saved it first."

We both started to crack and broke down into tears in each other arms. I dreaded the moment when I would have to break their bottles. I felt the loneliness slowly creeping it's way toward me. It was a terrifying feeling, but at the same time I knew that it would be better this time. Pelli, however, must've been scared out of his mind. He was the only one left. How much death has he witnessed? How many times has he been forced to act like an adult when really he's nothing more than a developing child looking for someone to look up to? How must he feel when he finally found and watch him die right before his eyes. My arms tightened around him and I feared that I was suffocating him.

"Go on," He said and wiped away his tears. "Take a look."

"Ok." I gripped the bottle in my hands and waited.

The room started to morph and change. This was different from Pelli's bottle because this time I was fully aware of what was happening. I was stationed on a well made twin sized bed in the darkness of a small bedroom. It was night and there was thunder roaring outside. Someone turned on the switch in the room and closed the room door. I didn't have time to inspect the room because I was being strangled by someone. I caught a glimpse of the face and realized that this person was Jaiden.

"Jaiden!" I wheezed.

His eyes dilated and he let me go, "Who are you?"

His hands were bloody and so were his clothes, "What happened to you?"

Jaiden's expressions darkened, "I murdered someone."

He sat next to me on the bed and held his face in his bloody hands. This Jaiden looked beaten and worn out. Actually, he looked a lot like Pelli sobbing over murdering his father and losing Jaiden. I put my arm around his shoulders and rubbed his left shoulder. At some point, he pulled me into his arms and sobbed into my shoulder.

"H-How could I kill her?" He muttered between sobs. "What have I done?"

"Who did you kill?"

"I killed…I killed.." Jaiden couldn't say her name.

It was terrible to see the pain he was going through, "Show me."

Jaiden looked fearfully at me and slowly took my hand to lead me out of the room. It was dizzying to realize every detail about this Jaiden was exactly the same right down to those emotion filled purple eyes. Well let's excuse the fact that he looks seven or eight. There was bloody handprints where he had used the wall to support himself. We walked slowly into the kitchen where a body of a middle aged woman laid. She looked a lot like Jaiden had a small pool of blood near her body. This woman wore one of the 50's housewife dresses. Her eyes were closed and she had multiple stab marks at her chest area.

"What happened?"

"I..I don't know." He sobbed. "We were talking one minute and then..then.."

Jaiden broke down crying all over again. I grabbed a blanket and covered her body.

"I'm so sorry.." He cried to the body. "I'm so so so sorry."

"You didn't mean it."

"Yes, I did."

"No, you didn't."

"I don't even know what happened!" He wailed. "We were talking about school, everything went dark, and then the next thing I know I have a bloody knife in my hands and my Mama's body is on the floor!"

He curled up into a ball and I tried to soothe him, "You didn't know."

"Of course he didn't." An eerily old voice said.

We turned to see it was Master with Pelli/Will flanking him.

"No.." I barely got out and stood protectively in front of Jaiden. "Don't touch him."

"And what will you do, my dear?" Master whispered in my ear suddenly. "How will you save his poor messed up life?"

"Who are you?" Jaiden's shaky voice asked.

Master flashed in and out, appearing behind us or beside us. He spoke a bunch of gibberish and continued to whisper in Jaiden's ear. I could tell by Jaiden's expression that whatever Master was saying it was nothing pleasant or endearing. Pelli/Will stood at the side lines and watched dutifully and made sure I was a good foot away from Jaiden. Then, without warning, Master took hold of Jaiden and covered his mouth so he could not scream and alarm the neighbors.

"Let's play a new game shall we?" He let go of Jaiden's mouth and extended his hand to the right where a long and eerily beautiful scythe appeared. "A game of win or die."

"Stop it!" I yelled and Pelli was on me in a flash.

"The audience must be quiet." Master smiled at me. "Now,Jaiden, my boy! Would you like to work for me?"

"Mmm..Mmm!" Jaiden struggled in his grip, his small body looked like it was being crushed by Master's grip.

"Let him go!" I yelled over Jaiden's muffled voice.

Pelli constrained me. He looked about the same age as he did presently which meant you were crystallized as the age you were when you were killed.

"Now, I uncover my mouth and you will tell me if you will work for me." With a flick of his hand, I was thrown against the wall and somehow stuck into place. "In..3…2..1."

Jaiden took a mouth full of air, "What if I don't?"

"Then you die a most unfortunate death."

Jaiden stared at him stunned.

"Jaiden, don't give into him!"

He gave me a fleeting smile, "What is there left for me to do?"

Master threw his head back and laughed. "Wise choice."

It didn't even take him a full second to thrust the scythe into Jaiden's vulnerable body. I watched his expression grow blank and the light leave his eyes. The eyes themselves rolled back into his head and I watched helplessly as the blood drained from his face. His skin sucked into itself and everything in the room went cold. Everything was dead silent. Jaiden dropped down to his knees with a look on his face that had no expression. Master moved Jaiden's body as if it were merely a puppet. Pelli had turned his back to the scene and busied himself with disposing the body of Jaiden's mother. Master's cold and unforgivable laugh filled the room as he continued to toy with the body.

I felt anger build up inside me. An anger so fierce and powerful that I felt the iron grip that Master had on me loosen. His cold eyes went to me and tried to regain control. I felt him fight against me but I persisted to resist him. I felt anger towards my parents for constantly fighting. I felt anger for being alone at school. I felt anger for Pelli being such a good kid and having to see such hardships. I felt anger for Master taking control of Jaiden's body and making him kill his mother. I felt anger for Jaiden being put down this path in life. I felt anger at Master for being the source of Jaiden and Pelli's unhappiness. The anger kept building and somehow freed me from Master. The scythe fell from his hands and made a loud clanking noise as it hit the ground. I walked toward the scythe while Master was still stunned by what had just happened and picked the item up.

The scythe was warm and probing in my hands. Somehow, the item had a pulse just like a human would. The pulse was strong and easy to feel, just as the power within it was to feel. I wondered if it would snap like a pencil or branch. Why not give it a try? So, I channeled all my anger and fury towards the scythe and used my knee to kick against the center where the scythe felt warmest.

"What do you think you're doing?" Master yelled as the scythe made contact with my knee.

Surprisingly, the wood split easily. Little splinters broke out into a dive into the air and glittered like diamonds as they turned into light. The scythe began to crack just like Jaiden did when he was killed in Master's home. It flew from my hands and broke apart in one huge explosion of wood and blinding light. The room was pure white for a moment and then came back into focus as a ghostly aqua green color. A young beautiful girl floated in the spot where the scythe had once been. She had long wispy blonde hair and a cold expression on her face just the way Master had on his now. I knew now that this girl was nothing more than a projected image of a trapped soul.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" Master cried out in rage and made a beeline toward me.

"She has freed me." She said monotonously and with a flick of her hand, she trapped master on a wall just as he had done to me.

"Who are you?" Pelli asked cautiously.

"I am…well…I am his daughter."

"Man, this man is deranged." I said to myself.

"He wasn't always this way." She assured me, and motioned to Jaiden. "He should be waking up soon. He'll be better than ever before, I promise!"

"Will you disappear?" Pelli asked.

I was pulled out of the bottle and my head was spinning a mile a minute. I was alone in my room and it was pitch black outside. The bottle glittered away on the ground until nothing was left by a sparkling particle of dust. A large knot formed in my stomach as I realized how I messed with time, but at the same time I realized how I might've fixed Jaiden and Pelli's lives. What had happened to Master or Pelli…or Jaiden?

Four months later….

It was a June evening and my parents had announced that they would take marriage counseling and work everything out. They promised me that we would be more like family just as I deserved. That notion made me think about Pelli and my heart sank a bit on the inside. I never really found out what happened to them and they never appeared before me again. Maybe they forgot about me and released their souls. Hopefully, they got where they were going.

I made my way into my bedroom and started to clean out my closet of summer clothes. Or at least some of my summer clothes, there was still a month or two of good weather still left. As I fingered through the articles of clothing, I found my favorite parka. It still smelled like fresh dirt and I was reminded yet again about Jaiden. No one was home now because my parents left for their first appointment so I let myself weep. In that moment, I no longer denied how much I missed Pelli or Jaiden. I cried for what seemed like three hours until I cleaned myself up and put on the parka. Tired and worn out, I curled up in my bed and fell asleep.

"Do you think it's her?" The voice was so familiar.

"It has to be!" I heard some other voice protest. "Look at her!"

"Shhh! You're going to wake her!"

"But I want to talk to her!"

I rolled over toward the voices and opened my eyes a bit.

"Look what you did!" The first voice clicked his tongue.

"I'm sorry!" The second voice said hastily right into my ear.

My eyes opened more and I almost screamed as I saw a pair of eyes staring back at me. Someone pulled the eyes away far enough so I could see the whole body. I broke into a huge smile; it was Pelli and Jaiden dressed in white. They didn't have wings or haloes but you could feel the heavenly aura that they radiated.

"Pelli! Jaiden!" I yelled in complete happiness, jumped out of bed, and threw my arms around them both.

"Pelli?" Pelli asked.

"Ha, she forgot your name!" Jaiden laughed.

"Shut up!" Pelli growled.

"So you must be called 'Will', then." I said distastefully. "That doesn't sound right."

"Yeah, that's my name." Pelli…I mean Will replied with a large grin on his face.

"We never got to learn your name." Jaiden pointed out with a smirk.

"I'm Thalia, it's nice to meet you again."

It felt awkward to have to introduce myself and offering my hand to them. They both shook it eagerly and I could tell that they have waited forever to talk to me. They told me how Will put an end to Master just as he had before I went into Jaiden's bottle and how his daughter helped free their souls as well as everyone else's. It was sad to say that they did not all end up with their original creator, but most of the souls that came with them were as happy as can be.

"We've spent forever searching for you!" Jaiden reported. "We searched for you in the past and future."

"And every year in-between!" Will chuckled. "He was so impatient to see you."

Jaiden reddened, "I was not. You were worse."

"Ugh, we don't have much time."

"Right!" Jaiden clasped something around my wrist. "We just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for letting us start over."

"Yes, thank you for freeing us." Will agreed, holding my hand. "You won't ever know how much that means to us."

"Don't sweat it!" I laughed. "You guys gave me something first, it was only fair."

They gave me confused looks.

"You wouldn't understand me even if I explained it to you."

"Well, I hope you'll give us a chance to understand it someday." Jaiden murmured quietly.

"Is it time to go already?" Will whined. "We barely saw her!"

"You know we used a lot of time already." Jaiden scolded.

"Whatever." Will grumbled and kissed my cheek. "We'll be waiting for you." "Yeah, so take your time ok?" Jaiden winked at me and gave me a quick hug. "We have all of eternity to meet again."

"Yeah, we do." I smiled and hugged him back.

In a flash they were gone. I looked down at the wrist where Jaiden had put something on it. It was a golden bracelet that had small beautiful charms hanging off it. The chain links themselves had microscopic words enraged on it and I already knew I would devote weeks to reading every single word on them. The bracelet felt warm against my wrist and I slowly curled back up in bed. A warm breeze blew into my room even though the heating was off and my window was closed.